Is experience the best arbiter of something?

The above is one of my favourite sayings in life. I suppose a modern form or alternative would be

been there, done that, got the T-shirt

The above is could be from the idea of getting a T-shirt at a tourist spot in order to show others that one has been to that spot. It has evolved into meaning that you have experienced something and maybe feel you have no need to experience it again. There would be differing interpretations to the saying but the root is based on having an experience of something.

For example, I knew nothing about Islam (and didn’t really care because it did not affect my life) until I meet my then future wife who was from a Muslim majority country. I traveled to the country many times and ended up living there for two years (and still visited as often as possible) and it was only when I lived there did I start to understand what it was like for non-Muslim minorities in a Muslim majority country. I have since lived and worked in many Muslim majority countries and witnessed what it is like for those that were born into Islam but really wanted nothing to do with it. Islam calls them apostates.

You can find some very good articles on the issue of apostasy in Islam here:

The above articles bring out the common teaching of Islam on apostasy and this is what an ex Muslim is according to Islam – an apostate. For those that have never been part of Islam in any shape or form, this means nothing to us because it does not apply to us and never will. We are unbelievers, or non-Muslims commonly know in Islam as a kafir, yet common humanity, and our Western liberal values, reject the Islamic teachings on apostasy.

We go farther than rejecting the Islamic position on those that leave Islam but we tend to listen to them more than the proponents of Sharia law – and rightly so.

In this video from Ex Muslims of North America Hiba Krisht speaks about the reality that many Muslim women face each and every day. It is in stark relief to Muslim women that are used as poster children of the Muslim feminist `movement’.